I’m an Emergency Medicine Physician With COVID-19, Now What?
A 35-year-old female emergency medicine physician presents for evaluation for severe myalgias, headache, fatigue, mild nasal congestion, profound anosmia, cough, and subjective fevers and chills. She has no measured temperature above 100.4°F, but has been taking anti-inflammatories around the clock. The day previously, she called occupational health and received testing for the novel coronavirus. The next day, her test returns positive. What happens next? We are here to share our personal experiences with COVID-19 and provide some resources to best support yourselves, your families, your learners, and your colleagues throughout this uncertain and ever-changing situation. [+]
Healthcare Providers in the COVID-19 Era: Keeping Clean When Coming Home
Given overcrowded hospitals and limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), showing up for work can feel like entering a battleground without ammunition for many physicians during the COVID-19 outbreak [1]. Despite this, doctors and nurses show up every day ready to do their jobs. While we have committed to the Hippocratic Oath, our families have not. How can we do our duty while preventing exposure of our loved ones at home [2, 3]? [+]
Why You Should Have a Mantra During These Stressful COVID-19 Times
Healthcare workers on the frontlines during the COVID19 pandemic are likely to experience an increase in stress, fear and anxiety. In these challenging times it is especially important that we take stock of our mental health and practice managing our thoughts. Similar to other skills we learn in emergency medicine (EM) practice, mindfulness takes deliberate practice and repetition. A mantra can be one tool for creating mindfulness and focus. A mantra can serve as a solace to come back to when we feel overwhelmed, distracted, or exhausted. In this post, we will describe the practice [+]
Wellness Perks for Healthcare Workers During COVID-19
Many companies have stepped up, eager to encourage and support those of us on the “front lines.” Here are some discounts and freebies that might help mitigate internal and external stressors that many are facing or will face as we enter a period of incredible uncertainty and fear. [+]
Announcing a new curriculum for medical students: Bridge to EM
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were already planning to launch Bridge to Emergency Medicine (EM). This 8-week curriculum provides a structured learning schedule for senior medical students about to start an EM residency. For the sake of timeliness and at the request of clerkship directors, we are publishing our curriculum earlier than we planned. It currently is missing the assessment piece; however, once the quizzes are written and peer-reviewed, we will migrate Bridges to EM to ALiEMU. There, clerkship directors can monitor their students' progress on the Educator Dashboard. Congratulations to the Bridge to EM Team, Drs. Tim Wetzel [+]
Match Day! Words of Wisdom for Life
Last week, more than 2000 medical students were matched into medicine. We welcomed you, and also offered some advice for how to manage the heavy workload of intern year. For the second part of our resident match day series we will transition our focus from work to life. Intern year is a hectic and stressful time. There are a lot of new things to consider. How will you get your family settled in a new city? What are the next four years going to look like financially? How do you make time for your loved ones and keep your hobbies [+]
Match Day! Words of Wisdom for Work
Congratulations on matching into emergency medicine! We are glad to have you. The journey you are about to embark on will be equal parts grueling and rewarding. You will be pushed to your limits but you’ll see and do some amazing things along the way. Excelling at internship and residency and fulfilling your potential goes beyond taking good care of patients. You will be expected to thrive in work and life. In this 2-part blog series we will cover some basics for internship survival, including professional development, life logistics, and wellness. To begin, we will focus on work–from finding a [+]
Making Remote Work “Work” for You and Your Organization
A 32-year-old male presents for evaluation of fever and mild dry cough. His vital signs are stable and within normal limits, he is in no respiratory distress, and he looks otherwise comfortable. He is a physician at a nearby emergency department and he notifies you that he just learned that he was just exposed to a Coronavirus positive patient. He had not been wearing personal protective equipment at that time. Your diagnosis? High risk for coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) Your management? If looking well, home quarantine. If possible, he’ll be doing remote work. [+]
Winner of the 2020 ALiEM-EEM Fellowship Contest: Dr. Mark Ramzy
After receiving numerous high-quality submissions, we are proud to announce the winners of the 2020 Essentials of Emergency Medicine (EEM) Education Fellowship contest! Dr. Mark Ramzy from the Maimonides Medical Center Emergency Medicine Residency program has won the blog post competition. A blinded ALiEM voting panel selected his winning post after carefully examining all of the excellent entries. We are thrilled to feature it today on the blog and look forward to meeting him in San Francisco in May at the 3-day event. Thank you to everyone who submitted their work! Dr. Mark RamzyEmergency Medicine ResidentMaimonides Medical Center Emergency [+]
Peer Accountability: A Strategy for Maintaining Commitment to Personal and Professional Obligations
There are a number of personal attributes characterizing the professional identity of “physician.” We are dedicated to patients, committed to lifelong learning, and responsible for a variety of other professional obligations. Each requires physicians to be highly accountable – obligated or willing to accept responsibility for one’s actions. In this post we present examples of how we’ve adopted peer accountability as a strategy to help us with the myriad responsibilities and obligations at the heart of our profession. Just in time for the New Year – we challenge each of our readers to consider finding an “accountability partner” in 2020! [+]